Tuesday, April 30, 2013

It's that time again. Keeping a WW2 bomber flying takes a significant amount of labour and money with four 12 cylinder engines to keep healthy and fed. This year the costs go up significantly with all four engines requiring a rebuild. At the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum they're hoping to have it all done and flying again by the June airshow and they're in full fundraising mode. http://www.warplane.com/keep-the-lancaster-flying.aspxPlease donate often and heavily, I like to hear that thing flying over my house!

They say you can never have enough clamps. I say that the same is true of sawhorses. However, unlike clamps, they tend to take up a lot of room when you're not using them.At some point, the Waterloo Metal Stampings company designed and patented neat folding sawhorse hardware that locks in place when opened up. I keep this one in my shop. Below, open and folded:

Below, legs folded up on the left; folded down and locked in place on the right. Clever and simple.

The company was around since at least the 1940's, making metal stampings and trunk and bag hardware. The company was mentioned in a 1956 promotional brochure for the city of Waterloo. It subsequently moved into the manufacture of door and desk hardware and was still being assigned patents up until the early 1990's. Then, poof, it disappeared.It doesn't look like anyone even makes brackets like this anymore, let alone in Canada. Pity.

Back in the 1960's, my dad bought me my first soldering gun, a 2.5 amp Weller D-550, that I still have and that still works just fine:

The American company at that time was out of Easton, Pennsylvania but their Canadian plant was in Kingston, Ontario. Below, from the instruction book that came with my iron:

Over the years, I've picked up two other Kingston-made Wellers. First, a 1.2 amp Model 8200, still in its original box:

Second, a lovely Weller TCP soldering station I found at a yard sale years ago. Sadly, it has recently stopped working, but I'm hoping I can repair it in spite of my limited electronic knowledge.

The Weller TCP (Temperature Controlled Process) system was patented by Carl Weller in the 1950's. It makes use of a closed loop system, using a ferromagnetic temperature sensor (Magnastat) within the iron's tip, with no need for external controls or adjustments to maintain tip temperature.

These older units are generally bulletproof and highly prized by those who work on circuit boards.From the ad below, they were still making their product in Kingston in the mid-1960's, although I have no idea of exactly where their factory was located. However, there is a Weller Avenue in Kingston--maybe that was the location.

Popular Science, September 1965

Weller founded his company in 1946. It was bought by Cooper Industries in 1970, which still uses the brand name.

Monday, April 22, 2013

I was admiring this bicycle at The Carlisle Swap meet in 1984 when the owner said, "Take it for a ride!" So I did. It rode like, well... an old bicycle, but the coolest old bicycle I'd ever seen. He called it a Hollywood bicycle but these two articles refer to it as a Bowden- after the inventor. Apparently only 6 were made.